It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas and the Estevan Regional Nursing Home is ready for the seasonal cheer ahead of them. Although the life of a resident has changed with the COVID-19 pandemic, residents are getting excited and the Christmas spirit is slowly making its way through the halls.

“It's a really fun time around here,” says Christine Stephany, Nursing Manager at the home. “We usually decorate the hallways and we put out some tree lights outside. We start to play Christmas music, and start thinking about activities we're going to do for the month.”

Stepheny said that this year, activities for residents will consist of giving staff a hand with decorating the facility, Christmas baking, and many different kinds of festive crafts. Although live music has always been a hit in the home, the staff has done their best to have recorded concerts available on iPads.

There will, of course, be many other changes this year. Stephany hopes the mandates during the pandemic will change eventually, but for now, they are playing it safe and following all the rules.

“We usually have a big Christmas party where you invite family and the residents there and you have the big turkey meal, some entertainment, and gift exchanges. We can't do that this year so it's more inventing smaller group activities.”

This year, they will be having a new program called Meal Club. The residents will be divided, have an assigned group, and will be cooking their own Christmas dinner within the building, in a small group setting. Stephany expects that it should go really well.

“Right now, we follow what the SHA (Saskatchewan Health Authority) tells us for visiting. It's visiting is only allowed right now for compassionate reasons... There could be some changes to that, but right now we have to follow the compassionate visiting. Our rooms have a nice size window so you could have the resident in front of the window and the family on the other side. Crack the window a bit and visiting and talking can go back and forth and that works out well. You can still see your loved one and you get that visual," Stepheny explained. "Then you can see, keep the eye contact and talk. We do have iPads that we use for visiting as well, but sometimes that look through the window is what people want to."

She believes that residents are trying to keep positive and said that she always enjoys the Christmas season because of the friendliness and pure Christmas spirit that comes around during that time.

“I will say this year, having to close things up a little bit again, just feels long for them. We try to change the activities up, make sure if they want to make contact with their families. We're assisting with that. I think we all take it one day at a time and follow the guidelines and hope in a couple of weeks, there's a little bit of change with them.”

As of now, the Estevan Regional Nursing Home is unable to accept any donations. Although the thought is appreciated, there are too many precautions in terms of disinfecting and possible contamination that is just an unnecessary headache for the staff and residents.